How to Save a Life
by KBelle1
Summary: Rey is a brand new registered nurse at the state's most prestigious emergency department. Kylo Ren is the grumpy doctor with a past. Can they develop a relationship that can make it past the work place drama and the trauma of having other's lives in their hands on a daily basis? AU, Reylo, slow burn.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Another new story! I couldn't get this plot bunny out of my head. So, obviously, this is AU. All of our favorite characters will be incorporated, so don't worry! I'm a registered nurse, and thought it would be a fun experiment to drop our favorite characters into a hospital setting.**

 **I've tried to keep things as basic and understandable as possible, but if some of the medical jargon is too much, please let me know, and I can tone it down.**

 **This is just an experiment right now, so if you want to see more, you're gonna have to review!**

Rey took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and centered herself. Tonight was her first night off orientation. Her first night alone in the busy emergency department at the state's most prestigious hospital – Galactic Healthcare. She was a new graduate registered nurse and had just spent 12 weeks on orientation, under the guidance of a preceptor. Tonight, though, her training and her skill would be tested.

Exhaling, she straightened her back, smoothed down her black scrubs, adjusted her bag, and marched forward with more confidence than she had. _She wasn't new_ , she kept telling herself. _You've worked here for 3 months now_. Luckily, her preceptor Leia was working with her tonight. It comforted her to know that she wouldn't be alone.

Walking through the sliding glass doors, she smiled and waved at the security guard, making her way to the time clock. With shaking hands, she badged in and made her way to the nurse's station.

"Hey Rey!" a friendly voice called out. Poe. He was a veteran nurse in the ER, and had been extremely helpful to her during her first weeks on orientation.

"Hey!" she said, hoping her voice wasn't wavering too much. "Are any of the other newbies here tonight?"

"Finn is here tonight. He's running late, said there was a bad accident heading in and he was stuck in traffic," Poe said, looking at the schedule.

Rey nodded absently, checking which rooms she was assigned to. Beds 3 through 5. Not bad. She could handle that.

She put her things in the breakroom before heading to the station to get report from the dayshift nurse.

"Ready for your first night?" the kind woman asked, smiling warmly.

"No," Rey said chuckling. "But, here I am nonetheless."

"Well, the patients right now aren't too bad. Bed 3 was brought in via EMS with shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. He's receiving oxygen right now, and we're waiting on a bed to open up upstairs to admit him."

Rey nodded, diligently taking notes.

"Bed 4 was also brought in via EMS. An elderly man who was walking his dog. I guess he tripped and fell, so he's got a 4 cm laceration to his forehead. He takes blood thinners at home, so we're waiting on CT to open up to make sure he doesn't have a bleed on his brain. All of his assessments have been normal so far."

Rey's eyes widened slightly at that, and her brain started thinking about all of the things that could potentially go wrong with him.

"Bed 5 is empty right now, but you know how it is," the off-going nurse said with a chuckle. "Someone could come rolling in any minute. Do you have any questions before I head out?"

"Who's the doctor?" Rey asked, hoping it was somebody nice. She had heard horror stories about the attending physicians who worked night shift in the ER.

"Doctor Ren is taking most of the patients tonight," the off-going nurse said, smiling slightly in sympathy at the dismayed face the young woman made.

"Doctor Ren…" Rey said, her face falling.

"He may be an asshole, but at least he's not bad to look at!"

* * *

The night progressed about as well as Rey thought it would. Leia had been assigned a different area of the ER, so she didn't see her except maybe once or twice. Her encounters with Doctor Ren, however, were enough to last her a lifetime.

"Nurse!" a voice barked, demanding her attention.

Rey whipped around, a dazed and frazzled expression on her face. It was nearing 10 in the evening, and if anything, the night had only gotten busier.

"When an order for a STAT CT scan gets put in, what do you think that means?" the handsome man asked her, eyes boring into her own.

"I'm sorry?" she asked, confused.

"The patient in bed 4 should have been scanned an hour ago, and yet, here he is, still sitting in my ER," the man said.

Ah. This must be the infamous Doctor Ren.

"I – I'm sorry," she said, "radiology has been backed up all night…they said they were coming for him soon."

"Then call them, and tell them that this patient needs to be seen NOW," he said, "unless they want him to bleed out and die from a stroke before he even gets put in the damn machine."

All Rey could do was nod. She picked up the phone and made the call.

 _"Radiology this is Rachel,"_ a chirpy voice said on the other line.

"This is Rey in the ER again. My patient in bed 4 needs that CT scan done right now," she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

 _"Rey, he's in line. We're super far behind right now."_

"This patient is in for blunt head trauma, and has an order from Doctor Ren for a STAT head CT. Someone needs to come and get him now!"

 _"Fine!"_ Rachel said before hanging up.

"They're coming for bed 4," Rey told Doctor Ren when she saw him loitering at the nurse's station.

He only grunted in response. Rey rolled her eyes.

"Are you new here?" he asked her, searching her face.

"Kind of. I'm a new grad, and tonight's my first night off orientation," she told him, feeling defensive.

"Ah, shit, I'm sorry," he told her, pushing his hair back from his face. "I didn't mean to go off on you like that. It's been a crazy night."

Rey nodded, picking an imaginary piece of lint off her scrub top.

"You're doing a good job so far," he told her. "Nobody's died on your watch yet!"

That actually made her crack a smile. "Yeah, yet."

He winked at her, picking up a chart from the counter. "I've been told I can be…difficult. If that happens, just know it isn't personal."

He turned to walk away, leaving Rey with a warm feeling in her chest.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** **This chapter is kind of heavy. Remember, I loosely base this story on real life experiences, and real life doesn't always have a happy outcome. Although, I do promise to give our favorite couple a happy ending. Please let me know if there needs to be any clarification about terminology. Also, I wrote this chapter on my phone, so if there are any errors, let me know and I'll fix them. Enjoy, and leave a comment if you're liking it!**

The second week seemed to go by much smoother than the first. There was still an enormous learning curve, being on her own, but Rey seemed much more confident in her skills and clinical decision making process. She was still terrified of making mistakes, though.

She also hadn't had many other encounters with Doctor Ren. He only worked that first night with her, so she hadn't seen him since. Apparently he only worked a couple days out of the week, but that made sense, considering the attending physicians worked longer hours. As kind as he'd been about his outburst, Rey had no desire to have another encounter even close to resembling the first one.

Most of the nursing staff (and even fellow doctors) grumbled about Ren's bad attitude, and it had given him a reputation. In Rey's opinion, that reputation was definitely well earned. She considered herself lucky that she hadn't had to work with him for several nights.

Tonight, however, her luck seemed to have run out. After getting report on her 3 patients, she literally ran right into Doctor Ren in her haste to get to the supply room.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She said. When she looked up and noticed who the tall, hard body she ran into belonged to, though, she blanched.

The man in question scowled down at her before realizing who it was. When he looked down and saw it was her, there was only a minuscule decrease in his frown.

"You need to watch where you're going," he told her, not stepping out of the way.

Rey didn't know how to respond. After the relatively kind interaction between them last week, she thought she'd developed a somewhat good rapport with the prickly doctor.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going," she told him in an act of defiance she had never displayed before.

And to her immense confusion, he laughed. Not just a small chuckle, a full on belly laugh that made everyone in the vicinity turn and stare.

"I think I'm gonna like you," he told her. She couldn't help the small smile that formed at hearing those words.

Their conversation was stopped short, though, when the sliding glass doors slid open and chaos erupted in the emergency department.

"We've got an unresponsive male aged approximately 20 to 30 years old," a petite Asian woman said. She also happened to be straddled across the unconscious man's body. "We lost the pulse en route, CPR was initiated four minutes ago, he's had no shockable rhythm as of yet."

That's when Rey realized what was happening – this man was receiving chest compressions, and the paramedic was on the stretcher to give her better leverage.

"What drugs has he gotten?" Doctor Ren barked out, already running towards the waiting trauma bay.

"He's already received 1 milligram of epinephrine. Monitor looks like he's trying to get a rhythm back, but like I said, nothing yet."

Ren nodded, focused on the patient. The man was placed on the table in the trauma bay, and Rey was dragged in along with the team.

"Rey, have you ever done CPR?" Doctor Ren asked.

She shook her head, feeling both nervous and excited at the opportunity.

"When she lifts her hands, I want you to immediately take over," he told her. "When you feel like you're pushing deep enough, push further. When I say clear, you pick your hands up and step away, understand?" He said all of this not unkindly, but with the calm, cool control of a practiced medical provider.

All Rey could do was nod and lift her shaking hands. Of course she knew this, she went to school for 2 years to learn how to do this. But nothing could have prepared her for the real life situation.

When the paramedic stepped away, Rey placed her hands on the man's chest and pushed. It took a couple of tries before she found her rhythm. Nothing could have prepared her for what it felt like. It was violent, and she couldn't help but feel like she was causing more harm than good, even though she knew that wasn't true.

While she worked, the team worked to cut the clothes off of the man. The cause of the unconsciousness was still a mystery to the team.

"There!" One of the other nurses shouted.

Rey looked up and saw it. The tiniest blip of electrical activity.

"Does that look like a rhythm to everybody else?" Doctor Ren asked. Everybody nodded. He charged the pads of the defibrillator and looked up.

"Clear!" He shouted.

Rey immediately jumped away from the patient, raising her hands along with everybody else. Her arms were happy for the break. Nobody ever tells you that CPR is so hard on the body of the person administering the compressions.

The man's body heaved with the jolt of the pads. Everybody held their breath as the machine checked the rhythm, but he was still without a pulse.

Rey immediately resumed her compressions, and Doctor Ren looked up briefly.

"Rey, if you're tired you can tag somebody else in," he told her.

"I'm fine," she said shortly. She needed to focus.

He just nodded.

"Push another milligram of Epinephrine," he told the nurse next to him.

She nodded, readying the medication.

Rey thought she heard Ren muttering to himself, words that sounded like him willing the man to live. Sweat broke out on her forehead. How long had they been doing this? Why wasn't it working? In the TV shows and movies, it always worked. Especially when the patient was young.

After two more shocks and a total of 30 minutes of continuous CPR, Doctor Ren called it. He looked absolutely defeated.

Rey stepped away from the patient, the man who didn't even have a name to any of them, and backed out of the room, eyes glassy. It had only been 30 minutes, but it had felt like an eternity.

While nobody else was looking, she slipped into the stairwell, sitting on the steps. She didn't cry. She was still too pumped full of adrenaline to do that.

She just sat and stared at nothing. That man had been her age. He looked healthy, like he was in the prime of his life. How does somebody like that just die?

That's how Doctor Ren found her. Sitting on the stairs, head against the wall, tired arms shaking from sheer exhaustion.

She didn't acknowledge him. She just scooted over a little so he'd have room to sit.

He lit a cigarette, and she glared at him.

"Don't you know that stuff will kill you?"

He smirked. "Yeah," he said, "but something's got to."

She shook her head. "That was horrible."

"It was," he told her. "That was something that will be a sentient event in your life. You'll never forget it. But you'll grow from it, and you'll be stronger for it."

Rey just nodded her head, and then finally let the first tear fall.

Doctor Ren didn't offer any more words, just a quiet companionship while he finished his cigarette. She cried for a couple of minutes for the nameless young man that she felt she'd failed, and then she dusted herself off and got back to her patients. If anybody asked them, they'd have no idea their nurse had just been through the worst day of her entire life.


	3. Chapter 3

"Who's the nurse for Bed 27 today?" barked a loud male voice.

Rey huffed, swinging her hair out of her eyes. Doctor Ren must be in a foul mood today.

"I am!" she called out, keeping her grip on her patient's arm. She was trying to put in an IV on a patient who was brought in high on some sort of drug, and he _would not sit still_.

Doctor Ren sauntered in the room and crossed his arms. "You didn't round with me on the patient in 27."

"I'm a little busy at the moment," she murmured, not taking her eyes off the patient.

"With what? That?" he asked skeptically.

Rey finally turned her head so she could look at him. "You want to give it a shot?" she asked, motioning towards the IV kit.

"Sure," he said, uncrossing his arms and putting on a pair of gloves. Poe and Finn were both in the room helping her hold that man's arms down. She went to the side with Poe, and rolled her eyes.

Doctor Ren tied the tourniquet on the man's arm and started feeling around the inside of the elbow for the vein he wanted.

"That's a bad idea," she told him, raising an eyebrow.

"And why is that?"

"This man has been flailing the whole time he's been here. Put it there, he'll rip it right out," she told him.

He grunted at her, but didn't seem deterred from his chosen spot. "I'll just tape it down really well."

"Be my guest," she told him, trying to laugh when she saw his hand shake slightly as he was about to poke the needle through the skin. "How many of these have you done, anyways?"

"Enough to know what I'm doing," he told her, not meeting her eyes.

Just as the needle was about to touch the man's skin, though, his pager beeped at him. Rey swore she saw him give a little sigh of relief.

"I've got to answer this," he said, motioning at the pager.

"At least make yourself useful and hold his arm down for me before you go," she told him, picking up his discarded supplies.

He just stared at her for a moment before nodding his head. After their conversation in the stairwell last week, there had been a change in their relationship. She was the only nurse who wasn't afraid of him now.

Rey felt a vein in his upper arm, and deftly inserted the needle, advancing the catheter all the way into the vein. She put pressure above it, and held out her hand, expecting Ren to hand her the flush. When he didn't she sighed and reached around him, grabbing it and flushing the line. When she was satisfied with her work, she taped it down and attached the fluids to the line.

"Ready to round on 27?" she asked, smiling sweetly up at him.

"No, there's nothing really to talk about. I reviewed his scans and blood work. I didn't see anything abnormal. I'm signing off on him, so you can discharge him whenever you're ready."

Rey nodded as she cleaned up all the supplies and garbage discarded on the patient's bed.

When she left the room and went back to the nurse's station, she saw she had a text message.

 _Still on for tonight?_ It read. She smiled to herself and responded with a quick 'yes' before putting her phone down and beginning her charting.

"What's got you smiling so much?" a deep voice asked from next to her. She looked up and saw Doctor Ren looking at her, head cocked to the side.

"For your information," she told him, "I have a date tonight."

"Ah, that explains why you switched to day shift today," he told her, holding her gaze.

"Yeah, it's hard to date working night shift. I met this guy at the grocery store the other day, and he asked me out," she told him. He nodded at her, a strange look crossing his face.

"Well, you don't know him that well, so be safe tonight," he told her, pressing a piece of paper in her hand. "This is my phone number. If you need anything tonight, give me a call, okay? I get off at 7:30."

She chuckled lightly, pocketing the number. "Thanks, I'm sure everything will go fine."

* * *

At the end of her shift, Rey went to the locker room and quickly changed into the dress she brought with her and touched up her makeup. She put her hair in a chignon, and then finally slipped on the heels she brought with her. With one last glance at her reflection, she took a deep breath and exited the locker room.

A whistle echoed as she began walking through the busy ER, and she saw that Finn was the source.

"Do I look okay?" she asked him nervously. Rey was a firm believer in the power of a little black dress. The one she wore tonight hit her mid-thigh. It had ¾ length sleeves, and a deep V in the front, covered by a piece of black mesh. The back, however, was completely open all the way to the middle of her back. She had paired it with a pair of black 4" pumps.

"Rey, you look amazing," Finn told her honestly, and she smiled in thanks. She leaned against the nurse's station and was playing on her phone when she felt eyes boring into her. She looked up and locked eyes with Doctor Ren.

"We need to talk about the patient in 27," he told her, motioning for her to follow him into the physician dictation room. He closed the door behind him and turned around to face her.

"Was everything okay with the patient?" she asked him, eyes wide.

"Everything's fine," he told her, waving his hand. "I just wanted to tell you that you look beautiful tonight."

"Oh…" she looked down at her feet, unable to keep looking at his face.

"You've got my number?" he asked her, walking towards her.

She nodded, tapping her purse. "I put it in my phone this afternoon. Thank you, really, but I promise I won't bother you."

By this point he was right in front of her. He reached out and ran a finger down her cheek, before leaning in and lightly pressing his lips to the corner of her mouth.

"Have a great time tonight."

* * *

Jason, her date, had picked her up at the hospital, since she had taken the bus to work that day. They drove to a quiet pub about 10 minutes away from the hospital, and he got out and opened her door. So far, she was impressed. He had been a gentleman from the moment he pulled up to the hospital.

He was also very handsome. He was blonde with slight stubble and a strong jaw. He also had the bluest eyes she had ever seen on a man. He wasn't as tall as she usually liked, but he had seemed nice enough when the met.

They sat on a couch in the corner of the pub, and they both ordered beer.

"So, what do you do?" Rey asked him, taking a giant swig of beer to calm her nerves. She could count on one hand the number of dates she'd been on, and she was nervous as hell.

"I'm an engineer," he told her, not seeming particularly interested in giving any more information. "What do you do at the hospital?"

"I'm an ER nurse," she told him. His eyebrows shot up.

"That's hot," he told her. She chuckled, unsure of how to respond.

"I mean, I guess if you think being covered in strange bodily fluids is hot," she said, awkwardly laughing.

He huffed a laugh of his own. "No, that you take care of people. That's super attractive."

She smiled, picking up her glass. She was disappointed to see that it was empty. Was that her second? She couldn't remember.

Jason got up and went to the bar to get another round, and she took the opportunity to use the restroom. She stood slowly, wobbling on her heels a little bit. As she made her way to the back of the pub, her heart dropped. Sitting in the back corner with a red headed man was Doctor Ren.

"Shit," she murmured. She'd have to walk by him to get to the restroom.

"Rey?" his deep voice called out.

"Hey Doctor Ren!" she said, her voice coming out bubblier than it usually did, thanks to the two beers she'd had. Apparently, drinking after a twelve-hour shift meant the alcohol was going to hit harder than usual.

"You should call me Kylo," he told her smiling slightly. "You know, since we're not at work."

She nodded seriously. "Kylo," she said, trying the name out. "I like it."

"So, where's this date of yours?" he asked looking around.

"At the bar. I was just trying to find the restroom," she told him, starting to walk past him.

"Everything going okay?" he asked her, putting a hand on her arm to steady her.

"Yeah, it's going great," she told him. "He thinks me being a nurse is _hot_." She snorted.

Kylo nodded.

"Did you follow me here?" she asked squinting her eyes.

"What?" he asked her, taken aback.

"Well, I mean, it's quite the coincidence that we're both here," she told him, emboldened by the alcohol.

He chuckled. "No, I did not follow you. My friend Hux here owns this place."

She nodded, and then heard another voice calling her name.

Jason rounded the corner, and saw her standing with the two men.

"Jason! This is Kylo. He's a doctor at the hospital I work at," she said, gesturing to the tall man.

Jason nodded and extended his hand. Kylo just looked at it.

"We should get going back to our spot," she told Kylo and Hux. "I'll see you at work! And it was nice meeting you."

She let Jason lead her back to the couch and she sat down next to him. They shared some more small talk, nothing really of great interest, and Rey finished her third beer.

She was just putting her glass down when she felt his hand on her upper thigh. Rey looked at him, and he grinned, inching his hand up further.

"What do you say we get out of here?" he asked her, putting his other arm behind her on the couch.

"Jason," she said, trying to push his hand off her leg. "This is just our first date."

"Yeah, but in a dress like that, I just can't help myself," he said, hand still inching higher and higher.

Rey finally had enough and tried to stand up, but he kept her sitting next to him. "Look, I'm sorry. We can take it slower tonight if you want."

"I actually think I'm ready to go home. I can catch a cab."

"Rey, don't be like that," he said, still not letting her stand.

"I think she said she wants to leave," came a familiar voice. Rey sighed in relief. She was out of her depth. She never dated, and she didn't know how to get out of these situations.

Kylo held his hand out and she took it, finally standing up.

"Rey, are you serious?" Jason asked. "I thought we were having a good time."

"I really suggest you stop talking," Kylo said through gritted teeth. "Come on, Rey."

They made it to Kylo's car without hearing anything else from Jason.

"Thank you," Rey said quietly as she buckled herself in. Kylo just nodded. She could see his jaw tensing. "I'm sorry."

He turned sharply to look at her. "Don't even think about apologizing. There is _nothing_ for you to apologize for."

"Well, you seem mad."

"I'm _trying_ to not go back inside and put my fist through that sorry excuse for a man's face," he told her.

"Oh."

"Let me take you home," he said, starting the engine. "Just tell me where to go."

He stopped in front of the little house that Rey rented and cut the engine. Rey stayed sitting for a minute, and then turned to him.

"Thank you, for everything tonight," she told him again, taking his big hand into hers.

He nodded at her and unbuckled his seat belt. He walked around to her side and opened up the door. He offered his hand and she took it before climbing out of the car. He noticed that she'd taken her heels off. He walked her to her door and waited while she dug her keys out of her purse. When she opened the door, she turned one last time and gave him a hug around his waist.

He wrapped his arms around her, and then waited until he heard the turn of her lock before walking back to his car.


End file.
